Generation_D:We'd all be dead in hours or days. Those idiot preppers would be first.

Not people who stockpiled fuel, water and a generator.

Actually, people in cities would be first once the electricity shut off. They wouldn't even have transportation to leave. Suburbs would be a close second because water and food wouldn't be available. Anyone with self-sufficient power and water who was well isolated from the rest of the world (rural) would last until the food ran out, which would be shortly thereafter.

Winners? Anyone in Afghanistan or the mountains near Pakistan, at least short term.

Benevolent Misanthrope:Speaker2Animals: Lsherm: Anyone with self-sufficient power and water who was well isolated from the rest of the world (rural) would last until the food ran out,

I would bet the food would still be there once Earth's surface reached ambient background temperature of 0.^A Kelvin. Only ones likely to survive much beyond a few days would be those in nuclear subs.

Thank you. The longer he went on, the more stabby I was getting about ambient temperature.

Geothermal might be able to provide enough heat for survival if you're lucky enough to be near a source (deep mine, volcano, etc.), but starvation would follow unless by some miracle underground farms of some kind were successfully cultivated (obviously using lifeforms not dependent on the sun).

Sid_6.7:Benevolent Misanthrope: Speaker2Animals: Lsherm: Anyone with self-sufficient power and water who was well isolated from the rest of the world (rural) would last until the food ran out,

I would bet the food would still be there once Earth's surface reached ambient background temperature of 0.^A Kelvin. Only ones likely to survive much beyond a few days would be those in nuclear subs.

Thank you. The longer he went on, the more stabby I was getting about ambient temperature.

Geothermal might be able to provide enough heat for survival if you're lucky enough to be near a source (deep mine, volcano, etc.), but starvation would follow unless by some miracle underground farms of some kind were successfully cultivated (obviously using lifeforms not dependent on the sun).

How long would it take for the earth to cool to a temperature that would not support life, though?

Benevolent Misanthrope:How long would it take for the earth to cool to a temperature that would not support life, though?

Billions of years? Probably at least millions. I believe the tidal action of the sun helps keep the middle churning, but it should still take a very long time to cool off. We're talking about the thermal inertia of the entire earth. And at least some of the heat is from radioactive decay, which would not be affected by the presence of the sun.

The simple lifeforms living around the black smokers in the abysses of the oceans should be fine for a very long time.

Sid_6.7:Benevolent Misanthrope: How long would it take for the earth to cool to a temperature that would not support life, though?

Billions of years? Probably at least millions. I believe the tidal action of the sun helps keep the middle churning

You're thinking Io or Enceladus. The moon exerts more tidal friction on the earth than the sun does. Most of heat in the interior comes from radioactive decay. The rest of it comes from leftover heat from the formation of the earth.

Lsherm:Actually, people in cities would be first once the electricity shut off. They wouldn't even have transportation to leave.

Um, most transportation runs on fossil fuels. You're thinking zombocalypse. Most people will be fending off an increasing cold unless the food runs out first. The result is likely to be mass pandemonium, but if someone could gather plant lights, crops, enough fuel and a generator and set up a hydroponic farm deep underground, one could subsist on fossil fuels for a while. But such a hopeless existence is likely to result in suicide. Otherwise, in this case humans will potentially be among the last species to go because of their dependence on fossil fuels. If we don't annihilate ourselves with derp, probably only the critters around the aforementioned black smokers would beat us, as well as underground bacteria.

Benevolent Misanthrope:Sid_6.7: Benevolent Misanthrope: Speaker2Animals: Lsherm: Anyone with self-sufficient power and water who was well isolated from the rest of the world (rural) would last until the food ran out,

I would bet the food would still be there once Earth's surface reached ambient background temperature of 0.^A Kelvin. Only ones likely to survive much beyond a few days would be those in nuclear subs.

Thank you. The longer he went on, the more stabby I was getting about ambient temperature.

Geothermal might be able to provide enough heat for survival if you're lucky enough to be near a source (deep mine, volcano, etc.), but starvation would follow unless by some miracle underground farms of some kind were successfully cultivated (obviously using lifeforms not dependent on the sun).

How long would it take for the earth to cool to a temperature that would not support life, though?

The cooling temperatures are only part of the problem. Most life on earth depends on the sun for energy, either directly or indirectly, and that's not 'heat' energy. Plant life would perish, and there goes our primary producers of food and oxygen. I don't think human production with sunlamps would adequately offset that loss.

dragonchild:Lsherm: Actually, people in cities would be first once the electricity shut off. They wouldn't even have transportation to leave.

Um, most transportation runs on fossil fuels. You're thinking zombocalypse. Most people will be fending off an increasing cold unless the food runs out first. The result is likely to be mass pandemonium, but if someone could gather plant lights, crops, enough fuel and a generator and set up a hydroponic farm deep underground, one could subsist on fossil fuels for a while. But such a hopeless existence is likely to result in suicide. Otherwise, in this case humans will potentially be among the last species to go because of their dependence on fossil fuels. If we don't annihilate ourselves with derp, probably only the critters around the aforementioned black smokers would beat us, as well as underground bacteria.

The zombocalypse would be great. You could do anything, the only limit would be your self.

So, life on Earth would survive for billions of years because of the geothermal vents at the bottom of the oceans and the heat from the Earth's core. If the sun disappeared without warning humanity would die out although people living in nuclear subs and in the ISS might be able to hold out for a little while. However, if we had advanced warning manufacturing facilities could be moved to areas with easy access to geothermal energy (e.g. Iceland, Yellowstone) and humanity could survive underground indefinitely.

It seems to me that there would be about a 50/50 chance that our Moon would end up crashing into Earth at some point if the Earth was gravitationally let go from its orbit around the Sun. If the Moon was behind the Earth, then it seems like it would fly off on its own. If the Moon was ahead of the Earth when the Earth went off tangentially, then it seems like the Moon would end up running into the Earth.